>> Apr 10, 2013

In
general terms, shopping online for gifts is a pretty naff experience. Unless
you know what you want in advance, or have been given a list of things that the
recipient wants, then you’re essentially flailing around in the cybernetic
dark. Often, we end up buying the first thing that looks even remotely useful
or likely to please, regardless of whether it’s really something that will make
the recipient happy.

OK,
so what this discussion is really uncovering isn’t that buying gifts online for
someone is an out and out naff experience, but that buying gifts when you have
no idea what you’re looking for is less than pleasing. To be fair, this
experience is displeasing whether you have it online or not – though at least
when you go out shopping in the real world for a gift you have yet to discover,
you’ve got the advantage of being able to wander and browse through things you
can see, smell, pick up and touch.

The
internet is a great place to shop when you know what you are looking for. It is
at this point that the availability of items from a number of different
suppliers, all of whom are competing on price, becomes genuinely helpful. From
vases to vajazzles, you can buy or book most things at the optimum price
online.

In
some cases, it helps to start by looking in shops – and using a smartphone or
similarly connected device to get a better idea of whether the price you see in
the shop is the best one you can get. You can even use the information you
discover to see if the shop will match the prices you find – allowing you to
get the most out of your shopping experience and still take what you want home
on the day that you want it.

Some
things can’t be bought in the real world, or at least not in the same way that
they are purchased online. You can’t make a photo book, for example, unless you
use a website that allows you to do so – or at least you can’t print a
professional quality photo book without assistance, which amounts to roughly
the same thing.

The
difference between a photo book and a photo album is one of class/. Tis doesn’t
necessarily mean that the album is always a bad thing to do – in certain
situations, having printed pictures hand stuck into an album can lend a real
quirky homemade feel to a gift, and can be ideal for the recipient.

In
other cases, though – and a wedding album is right up there here – the
professional print quality and binding of a photo book can be entirely
appropriate to the gift.

Shopping
around online is a different kettle of fish to shopping around on the high
street. You need to understand the services you could be getting in order to comprehend the services you are being
offered. In essence, this means that you need to have a decent comprehension of
how the photo book works.

A
photo book is made using professional publishing software, which uploads your
images into predesigned book formats. Some sites may give you more freedom over
editing and rearranging than others. Therefore, depending on the reason for
making the photo book in the first place, you may wish to specific different
sites.

Anna Mathews is a photographer. She
has just learned how to make a photo book using the
internet.

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Welcome to my blog. I'm a home maker, a stay at home wife. I'm just an ordinary woman who has interest in reading, working at home and learning to write. We live in Bogor, Indonesia.This blog contains articles in family topic. Contact me at linalg4@gmail.com